In a landmark ruling in the US courts, a judge ruled prison authorities in Connecticut were permitted to force-feed Coleman – leading to a United Nations investigation into whether the practise constituted torture.

Coleman, who has always maintained his innocence, was taken from his cell and extradited back to Britain in 2014 – where he was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register by Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court.

As part of the court order the now 58-year-old was ordered to inform the police if he applied for travel documents or intended to leave the country.

But Merseyside Police were informed by the Border Agencies that Coleman had returned to the UK on a flight from France on March 28 last year – a one day trip he had not sought permission for.

Today Coleman, of Washington Parade in Bootle, was convicted of two counts of failing to comply with notification requirements in a majority decision of 10-2 by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court.

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Judge Robert Trevor-Jones, sentencing, spared Coleman from jail, telling the defendant he took account of his mental health issues and the fact he had not breached his notification requirements to commit further offences.

Coleman was handed an eight month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with no additional requirements.

Neil Bisarya, prosecuting, had told the jury: “The prosecution say this case is really about the defendant wilfully and deliberately not wanting to abide by the notification requirements because he’s protesting his conviction in the US.

“Protesting is his choice, whether he accepts his conviction or not is his choice, but it’s not his choice in the UK in terms of what follows from that.”

Mr Bisarya pointed out that Coleman also refused to sign on as a sex offender in the US in 2012, in protest at the conviction, and spent two years longer in prison due to his refusal.

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He said: “He went on hunger strike to protest what he saw as wrongful conviction. When he was asked to sign the register in the US, you also know he refused to do that despite the consequent imprisonment...

“He doesn’t want to give legitimacy to anything that flows from his conviction in the US.”

Coleman had argued his failure to inform the police about his trip was not a protest but because he had not fully understood the 2014 court order due to his fragile mental health at the time.

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But the jury heard detailed evidence about Coleman’s mental health, including the fact that he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression relating to being force fed in the US.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Qamar Lodhi, who interviewed Coleman, said it was possible that the defendant may have “blocked out” efforts by police and the courts to explain the nature of the sex offender’s register notification requirements.

Coleman has in the past described being force-fed, which involved a tube being inserted via his nose into his stomach, as “torture.”

The hunger strike began in 2007 after an appeal against his conviction failed.

Prison doctors forced him to take meals via a tube if he refused to maintain a basic liquid diet.

Coleman had been convicted of raping his wife in 2005 - an allegation she reported two days after he applied for custody of their two children - and was sentenced to eight years in jail.